W-A-I-T With God

Ephesians 5:15-16 (NASB) ¹⁵  Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, ¹⁶  making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

            “You will always have time for what you really want to do.” Do you agree with that statement? Many people I know would prefer to debate its veracity from the negative point of view. They do not agree that it is true. So many of us run around either frustrated or complaining (or both) that we never have time for what we want to do. We face so many competing demands upon our time. However, I would like to advocate for the positive point of view regarding that statement. When I say, “You will always have time for what you really want to do.’… what I mean is that “You will always make time for what you really want to do.” In other words, all of us have the potential to control our schedules and not be controlled by them. You and I will make time for what we consider are priorities. How we use our time, in fact, is a statement of what our priorities are. I understand we have to work. But most of us take time for this as a means of supporting and caring for our families. That’s a great priority. God wants us to love our families in this way. What about the rest of our time? Are we intentional to spend any of it with God? How much? It is not my place to dictate to you some legalistic amount or percentage that will make you “godly” or “spiritual”. For me, the answer to those kinds of questions is almost always, “Well… I need to use more than I am now, anyway.”

            Quite a few years ago I gave the following encouragement (in a sermon, I think): W-A-I-T with God. Consider the following excerpt from Book of Times by Lesley Alderman:

      “One urban legend holds that we spend three years of our life waiting. It's a great stat, but likely untrue. But here are some real stats about waiting. New Yorkers lead the nation in wait time. According to a 25-city survey, New Yorkers spend an average of 6 minutes and 51 seconds waiting in individual store lines. Miami comes in second at 6 minutes and 44 seconds. Who spends the least time? Clevelanders—they spend just 4 minutes and 33 seconds in line.

      Which lines do people hate the most? Grocery store checkout lines. The same survey also found that half of consumers have refused to return to stores that had long wait times. The average wait times for doctors is 24 minutes. But in urban areas and among certain specialties, the waits can be much longer. Neurosurgeons have the longest wait times—30 minutes, on average. Why? "All patients have questions for their doctor, but not surprisingly surgical patients have more questions about the procedure, process, and expected outcomes." The average wait time for an ER visit was a staggering 4 hours and 7 minutes in 2009.

      Do you hate waiting? Don't move to Russia. The Mystery Shopping Providers Association sent its spies to wait in lines in stores, banks, post offices, and drugstores in 24 European countries and found that Russian customers spent the most time waiting in queues, followed by the Italians and Bulgarians. The Swedes got off easy, just 2.2 minutes per line.”

            What if we could reclaim some of our waiting times? We all encounter these times in various ways as we live our days. But what if we “converted” these times into times when we Welcome An Intimate Time with God (WAIT with God)? Just think about how much time we could spend in His presence just talking to Him! We could talk to Him about of families, our work, about the people around us in that moment, about the future, our problems and our needs. And we could talk to Him about what made us sad or mad or glad or afraid that day. We could spend some time thanking Him for specific things He has done – especially that very day, and for what He has done in our lives in the past. We could take a little time to think about God’s nature – unfolded for us so beautifully in the Bible. Whether it’s a minute at a red light, a few minutes in line at the store, or many minutes waiting at an appointment… all of that precious time could be spent with the living God – the Creator of the universe who knows and loves us and who desires fellowship with us. We aren’t really doing anything all that important while we are waiting. So why not do something of infinite value? Indeed, why not?

Psalm 39:4-5 (NIV) ⁴  "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. ⁵  You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah

Psalm 90:10 (NIV)  The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Psalm 90:12 (NIV)  Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

 John 14:16-17 (NIV) ¹⁶  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- ¹⁷  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

PRAYER:  Father, help me to remember to redeem the time and to make the most of every opportunity to spend with you. Your company is better than life itself. Let me seek the joy of dwelling in your presence continually. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott

Untanglers Wanted

Revelation 1:5-6 (NIV) ⁵  …To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶  and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

How did you do through December and the Christmas season—with all that shopping, cleaning, and getting those Christmas decorations up? Did it go smoothly? In case you stressed, at least one company is trying to help. You just have to move to England to get their help. Tesco, a British supermarket company, posted the following ad for a new job—a Christmas Light Untangler:

“Tesco is advertising a vacancy for what is thought to be Britain’s first professional Christmas tree lights untangler. The ideal candidate should be persistent and patient and able to untangle three metres of Christmas lights in less than three minutes. The successful applicant will be based at a store in Wrexham, north Wales, where they can expect to untangle up to 60 sets of lights a day for frustrated customers. To help locals enjoy the festive season and relieve some of the stresses often associated with the yuletide season – specifically tangled tree lights – Tesco has launched a search for someone who can conquer one of the most frustrating jobs of Christmas. The position will require a friendly, helpful demeanor, oodles of patience and of course, the innate knack to be able to untangle even the most scrambled of wires. The ideal candidate should be passionate about Christmas. The service will be free to customers and offered on a first come, first served basis.”

            Wouldn’t it be great to be known as “the Untangler” where you live? Everybody in town calls you that. It’s your nickname. You get a reputation over time for caring for and helping people solve problems in a non-intrusive way, no matter how big or small they are. People learn that they can come to you any time and find help when they’re down, or when they face difficult situations of life. You always seem to have time. You’re a good listener. You give really good advice. You have great ideas that make a practical difference. You don’t judge. You are kind and considerate.

            People all around have tons of problems and they do and say many things that tie their lives up in knots. Some of their circumstances are like nasty knots – hardened and tight and so difficult to deal with. If you ever had to bring a shoe helplessly to your mom because you just couldn’t get the know out, then you have an idea of the frustration people can have with their problems. This doesn’t mean we have a right to become meddlers, but we can be “untanglers” when invited. We can help them find solutions and get the help they need. We typically cannot fix their problems for them, be we can help them “de-clutter”, set priorities, and commit to do “the next thing”.

 We can bring the Word of God to people and pray with them. Christ is the great untangler. He has extricated us from the mess that sin produces in our lives. There is no knot of sin that grace cannot untie. The Gospel frees us from those bonds in which we had been kept like slaves. May the Lord pour out His grace upon us, and may we minister grace to one another. AMEN.

Psalm 18:1-6 (NIV) ¹  I love you, O LORD, my strength. ²  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. ³  I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. ⁴  The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. ⁵  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. ⁶  In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

Psalm 116:16 (NIV)  O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.

Psalm 129:4 (NIV)  But the LORD is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.

Mark 5:31-34 (NIV) ³¹  "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'" ³²  But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴  He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

PRAYER:  Father, thank you for delivering me from the cords of sin. Let me minister to others as Jesus has ministered grace to us. In His name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott

The Gas Runs Out

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)  ²⁸  Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. ³⁰  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; ³¹  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

On Sunday evening a power outage began in Bar Harbor a little after 8:00 pm. I don’t mind a power outage now and then, but I have expectations that they won’t last long and whatever repairs needed can be quickly handled. When it’s raining hard and water is flowing into your basement and your sump pump can’t do its job… or if you have health equipment that depends on power… or if you just don’t want to miss the game… power loss is inconvenient and frustrating at best, and potentially dangerous and destructive at worst. If you are fortunate, and have a generator, you may be able to avoid some of the negative consequences of power loss. Your neighbors might not like you very much when you run it for six straight hours into the middle of the night, but hopefully they will be forgiving and forgetful. In my case, I was thankful to have a generator that could temporarily meet an emergency need. But what if it were long term? Sooner or later the gas would run out.

            When I was in high school a friend and I went to a movie released in 1971 called The Omega Man. It was based on a 1954 novel, I am Legend, by American author Richard Matheson, and featured Charlton Heston as the only survivor in a war waged with biological weapons. He lived in a small, barricaded apartment complex because there were a few other “survivors” left who were no longer like him. They had been transformed into almost non-human creatures who could only “come out” at night. (It was a science fiction movie J). They hated him because he was “normal”. He was a doctor who had used a developmental vaccine and saved himself, but they wanted to kill him, and would not listen to his attempts to help them with his medical knowledge. So, because they were bothered by light, he barricaded himself in this complex and used generators at night to power bright lighting in order to keep them away and stay safe. You can imagine what happens at one point in the movie: the gas runs out and creates an emergency situation that puts his life at risk. He had foolishly neglected keeping the tank filled.

            Sooner or later in life, for one reason or another, the gas runs out. The power supply is interrupted. Our personal and community energy resources – when depleted – reveal to us our weaknesses. Many years ago, when a similar situation occurred, we did not have a generator at our home. We had to bail water by hand in an attempt to keep the cellar dry. It doesn’t take much of that to realize the insufficiency of your own strength. Because we virtually have always lived with the energy we needed at our fingertips, it is easily taken for granted. But our weakness is exposed when it’s not there.

            Personal strength – physical, emotional, etc. – needs renewing in our lives. That’s why we eat and sleep. These are gifts from God. Spiritual strength is also a gift from Him. If we are to have faith… if we are to be able to endure trial and hardship… if we are to resist and overcome temptation, God will have to give us power. When we draw from our own resources, we may last a short time, but sooner or later the “gas runs out”. Without His Word and without His Spirit we will be weak constantly. Without the encouragement and help of sisters and brothers in Christ (the Church) we also will be weak. God uses these folks to give us strength.

            God’s power is real… and available to us. He is generous to give it and we are desperate to have it, for without it we will be overcome by many things which are dangerous to our soul’s well-being. We access it by asking, by immersing ourselves into the Word, by waiting on Him, by trusting Christ, by going to our fellow believers, and by repenting of our self-sufficiency and our sin.

            The Lord, and the Lord alone, is our strength and our salvation.

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) ³  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Exodus 15:2 (NIV)  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV) ¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength. ²  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 28:7-8 (NIV) ⁷  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. ⁸  The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Psalm 118:14 (NIV)  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

PRAYER:  Father, be the strength of my life, and protect me from trusting in the adequacy of my own resources. I am weak, and I need you. It’s as simple as that. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott

Swallowed Up in Victory

Psalm 116:15 (NIV) - Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

On Monday the Associated Press reported that the Maine State Police are investigating the death of a motorist in a crash on Interstate 295 in Gardiner after a passer-by noticed the vehicle. Apparently, the crash may have gone unnoticed for as many as five days. Investigators believe it happened on December 28^th.  That’s the day that the driver was last seen going to work. The story then says that no one reported him missing. The car came to rest at the bottom of a steep embankment, so it must not have been obvious to others on the highway. Still, there is a sadness to the fact that he was not reported missing for five days. It makes you wonder if anyone cared, and what the story behind the story was.

This reminded me of another story I read recently, about Yvette Vickers, a former B-movie star, best known for her role in Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. It seems that her body was found in 2011, after having lain dead for about a year. A neighbor noticed cobwebs and yellowing letters in her mailbox and found a way into the house to investigate. Navigating through piles of junk mail and strewn clothing to the upstairs, the neighbor found Ms. Vickers’ “mummified” body in her bedroom, the heater still on and computer still running. The social “circle” of this 83 year old woman had come to virtually nothing and she lived – and then died – in isolation. In a world of growing digital connections, she is a reminder to us that technology cannot ultimately solve the problem of loneliness. We have Facetime and Skype and Facebook and email and mobile phones and internet and more. Personally, I am thankful for them. I get to see my grandson “live” and talk with my daughter at the same time. But technology will never replace being together in person… face-to-face.

Both of these stories speak to our hearts about loneliness and aloneness at the time of death. Most of the people I have ever observed near death want more than anything else NOT to be alone. They long for someone they love – someone who loves them – to be with them. That presence makes a powerful impact. But it cannot always be this way. And when I read or hear stories like these it prods a bit of melancholy within.

For we who know the Lord, there is comfort, though. When you are in Jesus Christ, you are never alone. The Holy Spirit dwells in you and the presence of the Lord never leaves you. He sees everything that others do not see. He hears everything you say, and He knows your heart completely. He promises to stay. For centuries many followers of Jesus have died hard, lonely deaths. Persecuted Christians around the world lose their lives often cut off from people they love. But they can never be cut off from the Lord. He gives grace even in the darkest valley of the shadow. This is another way His goodness is manifested to us, and we can be encouraged by His faithful promises. Death is an uncomfortable subject to think about, and we typically in conversation talk about everything else… anything else… first. But our good God has us in His hands and is always with us. He gives peace regarding one of the greatest fears we face in life. Jesus is its conqueror and we are resurrection people because of the Gospel. Thank You, Lord.

Numbers 23:10 (NIV)  Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!"

Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)  The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Psalm 23:4 (NIV)  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Proverbs 14:32 (NIV)  When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have a refuge.

Romans 8:35-39 (NIV) ³⁵  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶  As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." ³⁷  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 14:7-8 (NIV) ⁷  For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. ⁸  If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Philippians 1:20-21 (NIV) ²⁰  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

PRAYER:  Father, thank you that in Christ I am never alone. I place my life… and my death… in your hands, confident of your presence and grace. Deliver me from the fear that accompanies death – even the idea of it. You are the God of the living, and you are my God. Be glorified in me I pray. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott